Copying App Descriptions from iTunes

By Chelsea, 27 June, 2012

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps
Hi, I feel as though I've asked this before, or maybe just wondered it. How do you copy text from an iTunes store page so it can go into an app directory entry, for example. I'm on a Mac this time, and the standard OS X commands seem to accomplish nothing. The system won't even accept my command c for copy. I know I sound like a neophyte, but my next adventure is mastering the pinch gesture on iOS, LOL. Thanks!

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By Bryan Jones on Wednesday, June 27, 2012 - 02:29

Hi Chelsea -- I've listed my method of doing this below, but am interested to hear how other folks do it because I've always thought there must be a better, cleaner way of accomplishing this. 1. I start by ignoring the iTunes application. Instead, I use the iTunes.com site, where I've had better luck copying text. To locate the App on the iTunes.com site, I launch Safari and search for the App by including the name of the App and the word "itunes.com" in the search string. For example, if I want to copy the description for the App named "podcaster" I would do a google search for the words "podcaster itunes.com." The first or second item in the search result should take you to the correct web page. 2. Once I'm on the correct App page, I navigate by headings to the heading labeled "Description." 3. Now press VO+Right Arrow once, to put the cursor in the body of the app description field. 4. Now hold down the shift key and press the down arrow repeatedly to highlight the text in the description field. Note that VO will read aloud each line as it gets highlighted. Also note that you should not hold down the VO keys while performing this process. I usually stop pressing down arrow when I've reached the section titled "What's new in version xx." 5. Press the Command+C keys to copy the highlighted text. I will usually paste the text into textedit and review it before pasting into the Applevis description, but I' not sure if that's really necessary. HTH, Bryan

Thanks so much. I didn't know about iTunes.com, since I always get bugged to go into the iTunes app for anything.

By Nicolai Svendsen on Wednesday, June 27, 2012 - 02:29

Hi, There's one particular command you may find useful. It appears that VoiceOVer selection commands don't work either, so what I tend to do in iTunes is to use VO-Shift-C. It copies the last spoken phrase to the clipboard, even if you don't let VoiceOVer finish reading it. In a lot of cases, developers don't use paragraphs to write their application descriptions so VoiceOver only sees the description as one item. When it begins reading the app description, just hit VO-Shift-C. IF you need to copy multiple paragraphs, just do this again and paste each one as you copy them using this command. I do this every time I can't use either VoiceOVer selection commands or OS commands.

By lssphx on Tuesday, May 27, 2014 - 02:29

Just another chime-in on this subject...

Bryan's answer pointed me in the right direction because this was bugging me too. I found that if I use Bryan's technique using Safari, all the text came in as one long paragraph, making it harder to read unless I reformatted it.

If I use Firefox as the browser, selecting the text I want, then copy/paste into another document, it retains the formatting from the site, including paragraph breaks, etc. Just saves me some steps.

HTH...

By KE7ZUM on Tuesday, May 27, 2014 - 02:29

I use vo shift c to copy the last spoken phrase to the clipboard. I then apply markdown language to make the text a bit easier to navigate. This from the attunes store btw.